1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to cutting tools, such as portable circular saws, and more particularly, to cutting tools having one or more lights that serve to illuminate an area around a portion of a workpiece, e.g., a portion of a workpiece that will be cut during a cutting operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-170203 teaches a portable circular saw that includes a lighting device. The lighting device is mounted on a front portion of a saw unit and is disposed laterally of a portion of a workpiece that will be cut by a front or leading portion of a circular saw blade. More specifically, the lighting device is disposed on a pivotal support that is mounted on a base (shoe) of the circular saw, which base pivotably supports the saw unit. Therefore, the lighting device can illuminate the portion of the workpiece being cut during the cutting operation and the cutting operation can be performed by visually aligning the position of the front or leading portion of the circular saw blade with a cutting line drawn on the workpiece.
However, as described above, the lighting device of the above publication is mounted on the pivotal support of the saw unit. In particular, the lighting device is mounted on a pivotable arm of the pivotal support, which pivotable arm extends forwardly of a motor case (housing) of the circular saw. Because the pivotable arm has opposing arm portions disposed at positions displaced laterally of the portion of the workpiece that is cut during the cutting operation, the use of the pivotable arm as a mounting portion of the cutting device is advantageous to illuminate the cut portion from a position that is not far from the cut portion. However, because the pivotal arm is positioned so as to extend from the motor case, the pivotable arm naturally has relatively low strength or low durability. Thus, if the circular saw is, e.g., accidentally dropped, the pivotable arm will likely receive a relatively large impact force due to its configuration and the mounted position. As a result, a possibility exists that the pivotable arm will be damaged and the lighting device will be exposed to the outside if the circular saw happens to be dropped.